“ Yah tan vish ki belari, Guru Amrit ki khan. Shish diye jo guru milen, to bhi sasta jan. ” 


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THE TRUE NAME OF GOD IS THE BASIS OF BLISS

Once someone told me that he had just been initiated but did not experience bliss. I replied, “If bliss could be experienced just by being initiated, then why is the need for satsang and service written in the scriptures?” People think that they should get salvation just by taking initiation. But, only by practicing does one experience bliss.

St Tulsidasji wrote, “How can I adequately glorify the Name? Even Lord Shri Rama could not sing the glory of Ram-Nam”. Meera Bai says, “O mind! The essence of this world is the nectar; only Holy Name can redeem from cycle of birth and death.” Tell me if anyone could be saved from death without this Name. It is written in our scriptures that we should bow at the feet of saints. This is not written for elephants and animals. Go to the Spiritual Master, prostrate to him and ask. Then he will impart the knowledge of the Name which is indivisible and which redeems us from the cycle of birth and death.
One day a lady came and bowed to St. Tulsidas and he blessed her, saying, “May you and your husband live long.” She replied, ‘This is very strange. I know that the Creation can be devoured; water may submerge everything, but the word of a saint cannot be reversed. But my husband has already died and I am going to the funeral to burn myself with his corpse. So your blessing cannot come true.” Hearing this, St. Tulsidas said, “Put down the bier, close your eyes and remember the Name.” So saying, the saint also started remembering the Holy Name.



After some time, he sprinkled Ganges water on the corpse, which became alive again. Just see, the power of the Name can change even the laws of Nature! Fire became cool, even though its nature is to burn, in the presence of the devotee Prahlad. The essence of the Vedas is Spiritual Knowledge, which is true and one must know this. People do not understand the essence. It is written in the Bhagavad Gita, “Take shelter in Satguru and ask for the Knowledge”. The purpose of human life is to acquire Knowledge. You can know it only during your human life. So St. Kabir says, “ Chinta to satnam ki, aur na chitwe Das. Jo kuchh chitwe nam binu, soi kal ki phans.” (If you must think about something, think of the True Name, as anything else will ensnare you in the web of death).
It is written that a choukari is one cycle of Satyug, Treta, Dwapar and Kali Ages. One ‘day' of Brahma the Creator is equal to a thousand such choukaris and similarly one night of Brahma is also equal to a thousand choukaris. Brahma lives for 100 years, each day and night being equal to one thousand choukaris and thereafter Brahma also comes to an end. This world is so big that no one can describe its contents fully. If a seed comes in contact with water, it gets spoiled, but some plants grow with wheat for which you did not sow any seed. Then where does the seed live? If its seed lives in the earth, why it is not spoiled by rain water? It is all the Almighty's grace. If you pour even a little water on seeds they get spoiled and do not grow when sown in soil. Strange are the ways of God. Even the Creator, Brahma, comes to an end.
Meera Bai says we should come to satsang and sing the glory of God. Human birth is rare, and you may or may not get it again anytime soon. However, people get engrossed in illusory things of the world until one day they fall into the jaws of death. Only Holy Name can protect from death. It is written in the Bhagavad Gita, “He who remembers Me at the end, comes to Me.” Meera Bai's enemies tried to poison her because they did not like her dancing and visiting saints, but that poison became nectar for her. She was tormented lot but she did not give up attending satsang and said, “ Taji kusang satsang baith nit, Hari charcha sun lijai. ” “Give up bad company, come to satsang and listen to the glory of God.”
Everything else except the Name can be experienced by other species. The Holy Name of God can be known only by human beings.
When a dog chews a bone he thinks that blood is oozing from the bone, whereas in fact the blood comes from his own gums. St. Bhartrihari wrote,“Bhogo na bhukta waymew bhukta. ”  We think that we are enjoying worldly pleasures but it is not so. The pleasures are enjoying us! The things which we enjoy never come to an end, but we depart from this world one by one. So, instead of being engrossed in worldly pleasures, we should devote our mind to the Holy Name of God so that our human birth can be successful.

In the eightfold path of yoga, meditation is the seventh step and union of meditation, the Meditated (Divine Word) and the meditator is known as ‘samadhi'.

We have ten organs - five organs of action and five sensory organs - eleventh is the mind, twelfth is the intelligence. That Word cannot be known through any of these twelve organs.

In the beginning mind does not get hooked easily to the Divine Word and so one is required to practise this again and again.

One is required to hook his attention to the Holy Name of God and not to speak anything aloud. The external door is to be closed and the inner door opened.

“ sumiran surati lagay ke mukh se kachu na bol. Bahar ke pat band kar, andar ke pat khol .”

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“ Jab jab hohin dharma ki hani, barhahin asur adham abhimani. Tab tab Prabhu dhari manuj sharira, harahin kripanidhi sajjan pira .”

REMEMBRANCE OF HOLY NAME IS THE CURE

In order to achieve salvation, a devotee needs to have firm faith in his Spiritual Master. Only the true Master shows the path of salvation to his disciples and it is essential to put his words into action in one's life. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna instructs Arjuna, “He who remembers Me with his last breath comes to Me.”

Now people wonder how this is possible. You know that you are graded in an exam according to the answers you give after studying for the whole year, but you will be able to give the correct answers only if you have studied throughout the year. Students may take books into the exam so that they can cheat. Teachers have wondered how they could prevent this and finally they agreed that students can take books into the exam room. I was talking to some teachers and told them that if they permit students to take books into the exam then they will freely copy. They said, “Maharaj Ji, you are right, but students will be able to copy only if they have studied well, otherwise they will not know what to copy!” That is why it is said that one needs to be clever even to cheat!

Now, we should understand that we remember at the time of death what we do throughout our life. People hide cash to meet their expenses during bad times. If they forget where it is, then they will not be benefited from that hidden money. So they will remember every day where they have buried it and they will be remembering this same thing at their time of death. Saints said that we are reborn in a body to fulfill what we remembered at our time of death in previous birth. If we remember Holy Name and meditate regularly every day, then we will be able to remember this Name at the time of death. What will happen if you do this? You will get salvation and go to the highest abode of God. So Guru Nanak Ji said very authoritatively, “Ap jape auron ko japawe, Nanak nishchay mukti pawe.”

He says that those who remember God themselves and inspire others also to meditate and remember Holy Name, definitely get salvation. We shall have such inner inspiration only if we have positive thinking. If we nurture negative thoughts we cannot achieve such a state of positive thinking. Guru Nanak Ji wrote in the Guru Granth Sahib, “ Nam Jap, nam jap, Kalu ayo, Kalu ayo” . “It is Kaliyuga, so remember Holy Name.”

St. Tulsidas Ji wrote in the Shri Ramcharitmanasa , “ Nahin Kali Karma na bhagati viveku, Ram Nam abalamban eku .” In Kaliyuga (the present Age) the Holy Name is the only support as neither true action nor devotion is possible. There is a devotional song which says “ Tera sat chit anand roop, koi koi jane re.” Only a very rare person knows God as Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.

So the point is to ‘know'. Otherwise, all of us believe and say that God is omnipresent. We repeat what we read in scriptures. St. Tulsidas glorified the Name and said, “ Nam prabhav jani ganrau, pratham poojiyat Nam prabhau.”

He wrote that Lord Ganesh knew the glory of the Name and thus is worshipped before any other god.

St. Tulsidas further wrote, “Sumari pawantsut pawan namu, apne wash kari rakheu ramu.” Hanuman remembered the Name and so captivated even Lord Rama. So it is essential to remember Holy Name constantly once you receive the Knowledge, because this is the only way to be freed from all sorrow.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the telephone could become mobile, that the phone would ring in your pocket and you could talk to the caller from wherever you are. It means that the mobile phone has become in a way omnipresent. Similarly God is omnipresent. Lord Shiva said, “Hari vyapak sarvatra samana. Prem se pragat hot mai jana. ”

“God is omnipresent but is manifested through Love”. Today, anyone anywhere can have a mobile phone. There are phone towers from place to place. Your mobile phone first hooks up to the waves from a particular tower then is able to establish contact with anyone in the world. Similarly, when the meditator gets hooked up to the Holy Name, he experiences that God is omnipresent. Spiritual Knowledge is like a mobile phone. You can dial the Name from anywhere and talk to omnipresent God. For that you don't need to sit in any particular place. This is the glory of that Knowledge.

Sometimes it happens that someone has served for a long time and then begins to feel proud that he has served a lot and that he is a very old devotee. There is a story that the five Pandavas wanted to hold an elaborate sacrifice called ‘ Rajsooya Yagya '. Lord Krishna appointed their cousin Duryodhana as treasurer. The Pandavas objected to this and said, “Lord, he will empty the treasury.” Lord Krishna said, “Don't worry, if he spends a lot, then it's your name that will be glorified. You are spending lavishly to hold this yagya, but you are doing it with love. Let Duryodhana distribute it, for he has such lines in his palm that indicate that twice what he spends will come back to him.” This satisfied the Pandavas and Duryodhana got the job of cashier. He spent lavishly and the Pandavas' name was glorified. Think a little about the service Lord Krishna chose during the Rajsooya Yagya. He was the one who picked up the dirty dishes after the feast was over. He did not do higher profile service such as receiving the important guests. But in so doing he showed his greatness. Service is never great or small. Whatever we do in service is great.

The Pandavas fed everyone during this Rajsooya Yagya but because the bell indicating success did not ring, it meant someone was yet to be fed. After a lot of searching they discovered a saint in the forest who had not attended the yagya. The Pandavas begged him to come and he accepted the invitation on the condition that he would get the rewards of thousands of such yagyas. The Pandavas were puzzled and asked themselves, “We have not been able to complete even one Rajsooya Yagya, so how can we give him the rewards of thousands?” But Draupadi understood. She walked barefoot to that saint to humbly invite him. She said, “Maharaj, saints said that ‘ Sant milan ko chaliye, taj maya abhiman. Jyon jyon pag age dhare, kotin yagya saman'. ( If one goes to meet a saint, putting aside his illusory pride and ego, then each step he takes accrues the rewards of millions of yagyas). So by coming to meet you I have earned the rewards of millions of these yagyas. Please take as much merit as you like and return the rest to me.”

The saint then accepted the invitation. Service in the Court of the Master is such that even the poorest person, not only the rich, can do it. However the feeling of service should be pious and true.

Once an old woman dropped her needle on the floor of her cottage, but she could not see as the wind had blown out the flame of her candle. So she went outside and started searching for the needle under the street lights. A passerby asked her what she was looking for. She replied that her needle had been lost. The passerby then asked where it had been lost. She said that she had lost it in her cottage but, since it was dark inside she was searching for it outside. But of course you have to search where the thing has been lost. You should search for peace where it is. You should eradicate problems where they start. Since the agitation is within, you should search for peace within. So a saint has said, “ Apun ko aphi men payo. Sabda hi sabda bhayo ujiyaro, Sadguru
bhed batayo .”
(I found myself within myself. From the Holy Name all became Light. The Spiritual Master revealed the mystery to me). But this is possible only if we do what the Master says.

This Knowledge needs to spread all over the world. When the sun rises and shines brightly, the chlorophyll in green leaves converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. In the presence of sunlight even stale air becomes pure. Similarly, the Light of Knowledge eradicates the darkness of ignorance. So kindle the Light within. It is written in our scriptures, “Tamso ma jyotirgamay, asatoma sadgamay, mrityorma amritam gamay.” “Lead me from darkness to light, from untruth to Truth. Take me from death to immortality and let me achieve salvation.”

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